Cory Doctorow: The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI

In modern tech parlance, a centaur is someone who uses technology to become a better, more productive version of themselves. A reverse centaur, by contrast, is someone forced by technology to work at an inhuman pace: a driver expected to deliver non-stop all day; a warehouse worker denied time for food or bathroom breaks; a programmer pressured to produce impossible amounts of code.

How did we arrive at this situation, and how can we move beyond it to a life “after” AI, in which our tools work for us rather than the other way around?

Join celebrated author and technology critic Cory Doctorow in conversation with award-winning journalist Carole Cadwalladr as they discuss his latest book, The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI. Building on the ideas behind his influential concept of Enshittification - the process by which digital platforms gradually become worse for users as corporations tighten their grip -Doctorow argues that we need to understand this latest technology not only for what it does, but also for whom it does it and whom it serves.

Cory's books will be available to purchase on the night (The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI and Enshittification)

Presented by BRIGHTHINK & The Nerve